[The Temp]

[classicswim]

 This isn’t a retreat. Although, it could probably be seen that way.

What I mostly said last time was that I don’t need to watch new Futurama anymore. And that’s the truth. I don’t.

Toonzone was where I said the show didn’t need to come back. I’ve never backed down on that thought. I was unjustly hounded for it, and the incessant whiteknighting played a big role in how much disgust and contempt I have for usual suspects. Nothing I said was wrong.


I realize at this point, me saying “fuck this,” and even thinking of watching yet another wreck makes me moot and foolish. The fact is not only do I not need to watch what they’re apparently calling Futurama these days; I’d be the better person altogether for having principles and not wasting my time in this way.

I wouldn’t shame anyone else for liking these episodes. I was shamed for hating it because criticizing cartoons at face value is illegal to some very sheltered people. And honestly? They deserve new Futurama. If the recurring quality is what they’ve really wanted all along, why argue with them? 

 

Now, I’m not gonna hype up this week as anything putrid. It was aggressively okay, which for this revival on average is a miracle in of itself.

The most fun the episode had was at Lyrr’s event. In other words, the beginning of the episode. It failed to regain that momentum for anything else.

I thought about something as I was watching. In the prime Adult Swim days, I’d be watching reruns where I’d still get caught up in the goofy suspense of an adventure even if I’d already seen it before plenty. That’s one of the things to really define what Futurama was for myself and a lot of other people. With the Hulu batch, you don’t get that even with the episodes that are decent-to-passable. That’s something fundamentally gone from this series.

This episode followed the basic steps to actually write the show proper, but the stakes still never feel like they’re present. Show’s almost 30 years old. I get it. Last week tanked so foul because they stopped caring about boundaries and what makes something decent for air. 

 

This episode even did something I was itching to see explored in some way. Taking advantage of the timeline. Fry’s indeed spent a quarter of his life in the 31st Century.

Was the end result interesting? Hell no. They just referenced an old episode you should very much be watching instead. I’ll give them that it definitely was in line to how they handled callbacks even when still on FOX. But there was no real purpose to a tiny section of the episode being 3001 other than “oh yeah. We’ve existed for quite awhile.”


The Temp hinges on the “don’t you assholes remember me” comedy trope that Futurama’s probably done well before in innocuous doses. The show’s very much not equipped to perform that trope in the way Always Sunny and countless others have mastered it. You know this because this episode just has the characters dopily repeat the punchline of the joke over and over. A good few times without the subject even in the same room. And when it is in the same room, the reaction isn’t good enough.

David Herman yet again. He could’ve done more to make Frank remarkable. It’s not like Herman’s voice is shot compared to the some of the others. Frank didn’t have to be Roberto but he also didn’t have to be a samey David Herman show villain either. He wasn’t weird or anything, he was just safe-weird.

Comments

[matt_zimmer]

I disliked the episode more than you. I thought it was mean, and the resolution made little sense. I think if the show had come up with a similar premise 20 years ago, they would have declined to the make the episode because they couldn't come up with a good angle.

[classicswim]

I don’t miss the common theme where some random character swoops in on the main character’s action and relentless jealousy occurs. Even though fantastic episodes were made with that approach.

It’s so weird how The Temp’s description was very simply “stranger takes over Fry’s life” and Fry didn’t have remotely anything to add. The story was too static for me to really factor in it being cynical.

[matt_zimmer]

I liked the idea behind the unexplained mystery of it at the beginning. But the resolution didn't actually make sense and wasn't believable.